Benzinga | Sep 8, 2021 07:12AM EDT

Bio-Techne And Carterra Initiate A Clinical Research Collaboration For COVID-19 Variant Analysis

Bio-Techne, a leading supplier of high-quality and innovative tools for life science research, therapeutic manufacturing and clinical diagnostics and Carterra Inc., the world leader in high-throughput antibody screening and characterization, today announced a clinical research collaboration studying COVID-19 variants. New variants, such as Delta, can be more easily transmitted and more likely to evade the immune response of vaccinated or previously infected people. To assess immune responses to new variants and to plan for intervention mechanisms that avoid vaccine escape, scientists and epidemiologists need a fast and effective assay.

The partnership leverages Carterra's flagship analytical platform - the LSA(r) - to characterize panels of SARS-CoV-2 spike and receptor-binding domain (RBD) variants in an information-rich assay. The SARS-CoV-2 variants were developed by Bio-Techne and used to fast-track the new, scalable assay for measuring the potential risks that new variants may evade the ability of the immune system to block the virus.

Bio-Techne has been leading the way in COVID-19 research reagent and immunoassay development enabling scientists to make discoveries leading to effective diagnoses, therapies and vaccines. The company was first to market with COVID-19 research protein variants and has significant expertise with SARS-CoV-2 antibody quantitation. Bio-Techne and Carterra will focus this collaboration on more than 40 variants, including the Delta variant that is prevalent today, and emerging variants as they are discovered.

"We're thrilled at the opportunity to combine our best-in-class research tools and COVID-19 variants with Carterra's innovative analytical technology," said David Eansor, President of the Protein Sciences group at Bio-Techne. "It's through collaborations like these that we can help understand the rapidly changing health risks from viral mutations in this pandemic. Bio-Techne and Carterra are aligned in this mission."

The Carterra LSA will be used to generate high-definition insights with over 120 data points from patient serum samples, including a variant profile, ACE-2 blocking potential, and isotyping profiles of immunoglobin response. The LSA's hands-free, high-throughput setup requires only 2 ?L of patient serum and provides for the analysis of new and emerging variants in the ever-evolving field of COVID-19 research.

Carterra's LSA instrument is the fastest, most sensitive and flexible biosensor platform on the market. Combining proprietary flow printing microfluidics with High Throughput Surface Plasmon Resonance (HT-SPR) technology, the LSA enables detailed screening and characterization of vast antibody or variant libraries, including full kinetic profiles. With the ability to generate real-time binding data for 384 proteins on one chip and assay up to 1152 patient samples in a single unattended run, the LSA significantly improves efficiency and speed in both drug discovery and clinical research.

"Speed is the name of the game when combatting emerging pathogens such as COVID-19," said Carterra's Chief Executive Officer, Josh Eckman. "Through this important clinical research collaboration with Bio-Techne, we are leveraging world-class reagents with the fastest analytical platform available. We will absolutely know more about the COVID-19 variants through this study."